The GÜNTER BOCK Prize

In July 2007, SAC awarded the Günter Bock Prize for the first time to the most outstanding first year student in its two-year, postgraduate Master of Arts in Architecture programme. Till date, the prize has been awarded annually during the programme’s annual End-of-Year events in July.

The Günter Bock Prize is named in honour of the Frankfurt-based architect Günter Bock who was SAC’s leader from 1972 to 1984. During his tenure, he took the programme from a modest German presence to the international scene.

Almost a quarter of a century after Bock left Städelschule, the Günter Bock Prize promotes excellence among SAC's students, celebrates high quality research and personal development within the academic context of the school and provides, of course, a financial encouragement and support in what is unavoidably an economically demanding student life. The End-of-Year jury that reviews the first year students' work, is also the jury for the Günter Bock Prize. At the discretion of the jury, the prize can be divided between two winners and/or announce honourable mentions.

With time, the Günter Bock Prize has come to resonate with increased importance in SAC’s development. It forms a lead banner under which SAC pursues its goals of excellence and students are initiated to programme's pedagogy. The Günter Bock Prize is a most generous gift to its recipients but first and foremost an emblem around which all of SAC gathers.

The prize currently consists of a €3.000 award that goes towards the winner's annual tuition fee for the Master Thesis Year.

PRIZE HISTORY

The introduction of the Günter Bock Prize in 2007 marked the importance of the formal academic transition from an un-accredited diploma programme to an accredited programme with a postgraduate Master degree. Moreover, it also directly addressed incoming students, their personal achievements within the first year in the programme and the struggle for academic excellence. The prize immediately became one of the symbols of the new SAC, but - through its naming, anchored it to the programme’s institutional and academic history.

The initiative that led to the Günter Bock Prize being established in 2007 followed an offer from the Lions Club Frankfurt Flughafen (‘Frankfurt Airport’) to support the Städelschule. The dean of the Städelschule at that time, Daniel Birnbaum, channeled the request to SAC whereupon the prize was established.

Since 2011, the Günter Bock Prize is part of the programme of the Foundation Städelschule for 'Building Art' (‘Stiftung Städelschule für Baukunst’), which guarantees the prize’s existence and caters to its statutes. The Foundation was founded by Günter Bock in 2001, shortly before his death. Thus, with the foundation taking over the Günter Bock Prize, the prize has so to speak come home.

ABOUT Günter Bock

Originally from Danzig in Poland, Günter Bock (1918-2002) completed his architectural studies in Salzburg in 1940. After the war, in which he served in the German army and was wounded in Austria, he set up his own practice in 1956. He became acquainted with various artists, including Joseph Beuys, and developed an interest in the relationship between art and architecture. This interest informed his subsequent work and teaching for the rest of his life.

In 1970 Bock became the leader of SAC and in 1978 introduced its postgraduate programme in ‘Conceptual Design’. The latter became the basis for SAC’s later transformation into an accredited postgraduate Master of Arts degree programme. Bock retired from SAC in 1984.

Among Bock’s principal work is the community centre, Haus Sindlingen (1961-3), the funeral chapel in the Westhausen cemetery in Frankfurt (1960), as well as numerous private homes in Taunus, outside Frankfurt.

Bock received the prize, Grand Prix de l'architecture de l'urbanisme, in 1969 and, upon retiring from the Städelschule in 1984, was a visiting professor at MIT in 1990.